v1.1.0 — Open Source & Free

Your Mac's vitals,
at a glance.

Blip is a featherlight macOS menu bar app that monitors CPU, memory, disk, GPU, network, and battery. Beautiful charts, tiny footprint, zero dependencies.

CPU
45
MEM
67
HD
34
~2 MB
Binary size
0
Dependencies
~250 MB
Memory footprint
MIT
License

Everything you need, nothing you don't.

Blip monitors what matters and stays out of your way.

CPU Monitoring

Total and per-core usage, user/system breakdown, load averages (1m/5m/15m), P-core and E-core counts. See which apps are using the most CPU with their icons.

🧠

Memory

Active, wired, compressed, and app memory breakdown. Memory pressure indicator with top processes by memory usage and their app icons.

💾

Disk

Space used and available for all mounted volumes. Real-time read and write speeds via IOKit. Root volume and external drives shown separately.

🌐

Network

Live connectivity dot, upload and download speeds, WAN and router ping latency, IPv4/IPv6, LAN IP, router IP, MAC address, WAN IP reveal, and VPN detection including Tailscale and WireGuard.

🎮

GPU

Apple Silicon GPU utilization percentage with renderer name. Historical usage chart shows GPU load over time with smooth monotone interpolation.

🔋

Battery & Fans

Charge level, health percentage, cycle count, temperature, charging status, and time remaining. Fan RPM with min/max ranges shown in detail view.

📊

Beautiful Charts

Historical sparkline charts for CPU, memory, and GPU powered by Swift Charts. Smooth animations with area gradients and monotone curve interpolation.

🪶

Featherlight

~2 MB binary. Zero external dependencies. Polls every 2 seconds with efficient ring buffers. Shows its own memory usage in the footer so you can verify.

🎨

Customizable

Follows system accent color by default. Custom color override via color picker. Toggle individual menu bar items and labels. Launch at login support.

Questions & Answers

Does Blip work on Intel Macs?

Blip is built exclusively for Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4 and newer). It uses ARM64-specific optimizations and Apple Silicon IOKit interfaces for GPU and thermal monitoring.

What macOS version do I need?

macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later. Blip uses Swift Charts and other APIs introduced in macOS 14.

How much memory does Blip use?

Typically around 250 MB. Blip shows its own memory footprint in the popover footer so you can always check. The binary itself is around 2 MB.

Is it safe? Why does it need to run unsandboxed?

Blip needs to read hardware sensors (SMC for fans, IOKit for GPU/disk I/O, process list for top apps) which require unsandboxed access. The app is fully open source — you can audit every line of code, and every release is notarized by Apple.

How does the hover detail panel work?

Hover over any row in the main popover to reveal a detailed sub-panel to the side — just like iStats Menus. It shows charts, breakdowns, and top processes for that category.

Can I customize what shows in the menu bar?

Yes. Open Settings (gear icon in the popover) and toggle individual items: CPU, Memory, Disk, Network dot, and labels. You can also set a custom accent color.

Will there be a Mac App Store version?

Possibly in the future. The current version requires unsandboxed access for full hardware monitoring, which makes App Store distribution more complex. For now, download the notarized DMG from GitHub Releases.

How do I build from source?

Clone the repo, install XcodeGen (brew install xcodegen), run xcodegen generate, then build with Xcode or xcodebuild. See the README for full instructions.

Try Blip today.

Free, open source, and built for Apple Silicon.